


Fox Courtship

by frost078



Series: Bride of the Black Fox [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Nogitsune, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, not officially tagging slowbuild or slowburn until it's confirmed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 05:55:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7562944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frost078/pseuds/frost078
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a fox trapped in the woods.<br/>A boy finds him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fox Courtship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a general PSA for this fic: there will be some Japanese words sprinkled here and there, but not to worry, it is...  
> • **very minor**  
>  • **will not distract you from the actual story**  
>  • **translations will be provided at the end notes**
> 
> Just thought you should know. Now that's over, please carry on. <3

* * *

 

Stygian and the never ending slice of the harsh coldness.

The fox doesn't know how long it's been since his imprisonment within the confines of the sacred space of Saishi that run with wolves. He doesn't know if it's been years – decades, centuries, millenniums? – or that only less than a day has passed.

It is cruel either way, that perhaps an era has come and go without him being able to witness its rise and fall or that it's only been mere minutes since the betrayal of a fellow fox. Yet that is not the worst of it. His confinement has also created another kind of agony he never thought he would ever experience. To not know how much time has gone by, despite the fact that foxes like him do not age like humans do and have no need to keep track of it obsessively.

Regardless of having an almost nonexistent mortality rate with a different sense of time, he does not like being left in the unknown.

Wolven Saishi do not exist in his beautiful motherland, but he has heard of stories of their symbiotic relationships with the lupine moon children and how they keep the balance of the world in check. Other foxes who have traveled beyond Inari-sama's domain and ventured into the unruliness that is the western supernatural world have often spoken that the tree of the wolven Saishi (called a Nemeton, they titter excitedly) is as sacred as a Shinto shrine's inner sanctum.

But the more he is confined within their sanctum, if it could be called as such, the more he dislikes, _hates_ and _**rages**_ against the injustice that has been done to him.

The damned, pale imitation of a tree, said to be representations of the center of the world and a physical symbol that tells of the fate of the surrounding villages, is nothing but a curse. Clearly, the other foxes have never had a firsthand experience with the abomination of nature. It is much more similar to a blight caused by evil spirits that have lost their way and strayed from the light.

Being trapped in its grasp, physically under the tree itself, is a painful punishment he would not wish upon anyone.

Inari-sama's foxes don't die the way humans do, in the span of seasons made into a tale woven by court storytellers. They aren't chased by time nor are they susceptible to disease. While it is true that foxes can die, it is almost unheard of because all foxes are alive as long as Inari-sama allows.

If there was a choice between sealed away or death, he would rather choose death. While he is grateful for his creator's kindness for breathing life into him, it is a terrible fate to be sealed away and be scrubbed bare and raw down to the bone, to be flayed alive without an ounce of remorse. He is not angry at being unjustly confined by the Nemeton. His anger comes from the fact that the Nemeton is a power hungry beast on par with malefic spirits, draining him of his entirety.

The fact that he had answered the desperate pleas of a celestial fox who had been wronged by the greedy humans creating more death and destruction is telling enough of what kind of fox he is. A fox of the darkness he may be, created by Inari-sama's wish to keep the darkness of the world contained, he still upholds all of the ends of his deals contrary to infamous misconceptions concerning his element. 

The celestial fox in question, the kind of fox that is the most closely related to their creator, had summoned him for revenge.

After assessing the emotions that were practically spilling out of her like an overfilled cup of tea (grieving for a lost love, grieving for the loss of humanity) as well as the generally state of the place he was summoned in (destruction, disease, so much death, **greedgreedGrEEdGREED** _ **greedgReeD**_ ), it was within his rights to not only done what she asked but also perform a cleansing on the land by completely destroying the ones who tainted it in the same way they've used their hands to dirty all life.

To think a celestial fox would dishonor their deal and betray him because she didn't like the outcome… who did she think she was, to do so to both their deal and his kind? For a fellow fox, whether or not they were of the same element, to not know what a dark fox does to cleanse and heal the impurities of the world? Ridiculous, is what it is, when he was reduced to the humiliating form of a puny fly and trapped in a jar, unable to hear Inari-sama or anything else beyond the screams of the wind and the dark pull of the tree.

Foxes in general are not pack animals like wolves as they prefer solitude and hunting alone, but never in his long life has he ever felt so irrevocably lonely.

His rage comes back full circle because how dare that vixen, cowardly and naive like a human child untouched by the ongoing ruthlessness of humanity.

How dare she damn him into an unwanted solitude, lock him in a cramped cage with no basic decency like Miko exorcisms and seals.

How dare she damn him for her own mistakes of mingling with humans and drag him for being unable to solve her own problems.

Celestial foxes had more power than dark foxes, which, frankly speaking, didn't register in her mind, as addled with grief and anger as it was. Then to have three out of nine tails stolen is just adding salt to the wound.

She dishonors not only the celestial foxes, but their fellow kin and Inari-sama themselves. Not only is she a traitor but a filthy thief too.

It is very unfortunate that he cannot do anything about it and that he cannot contact his creator, as Inari-sama's reach only extends as far as the sea surrounding the land of the rising sun. Had they been in their motherland, it is without doubt that Inari-sama would have found out about the injustice right away and give the highest form of punishment to kin-betrayer – stripping away not only her power, but her status among the foxes as one of the higher elements among their kind.

 **It would be fitting** , his mind whispers to him, somehow poisoned by the pseudo world tree, **it would show that foxes may be sly tricksters, but they do not lie t** **o kin.**

But he cannot escape the Nemeton's grasp, as the longer he's within it, the more power he loses as it gets increasingly worse. When it comes to latching onto his energy source, he can feel that it is always ravenous, unable to be fully sated. Like a disgusting leech, wriggling incessantly, biting hard and has a strangely forceful grasp that one cannot pry off of themselves.

The roots of the Nemeton are using his powers against him by corrupting his mind with the impurities he had taken with him through previous cleansing rituals. It is demeaning enough that he is trapped in the form of one of the weakest insects, but to use his own element against him is a low blow. It's even enough to drive him to insanity. At this rate, he might even forget himself as a loyal servant of Inari-sama and become nothing but a mindless prisoner, forever doomed and helpless to the whims of the twisted tree.

But he will not succumb and cease his last breath.

The Nemeton may slowly and tortuously drain him of his well earned power, but it will not steal his pride as a fox and his wrath as a dark fox.

He will never give up, for he has to seek revenge and regain what is rightfully his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Saishi** = priest  
>  **Miko** = priestess  
>  **Wolven Saishi** = refers to druids  
>  **-sama** = an honorific used at the end of names of people who are either royalty or regarded with great admiration, it is also used for gods 
> 
> \- - -
> 
> So, this is my first foray in the TW fandom as a writer. I wanted to try writing steter first, but inspiration was sky high for voiles, haha. I hope this is okay. ^^ Feedback is appreciated.


End file.
